History Main / ZipMode

** The series in general has had fast travel since ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsArena Arena]]''. ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIDaggerfall Daggerfall]]'' allows you to fast travel to any location right away, but ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'' require you to visit a location before you can fast travel there. (''Skyrim'' does have carriages that will, for a price, take you from any major city to any other major city to make it easier.)
** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]'' is an exception, as it lacks fast travel. It does have it in the form of Silt Striders (giant native insects which have been lobotomized and are "driven" by manipulating exposed muscle tendons. Passengers ride in the beast's hollowed-out shell), boats along the coasts, and by the Mages Guild "Guild Guide" service (instant teleportation between Mages Guild halls). Additionally, the spells "Divine Intervention" and "Almsivi Intervention" will teleport you to the nearest Imperial shrine and Tribunal temple, respectively. The Mark and Recall spells are similar, allowing you to set a "Mark" and then "Recall" to that spot. Useful for traveling long distances when no fast travel is available, getting out of a sticky situation in a hurry, or for transporting more loot than you could carry on foot.
* ''{{VideoGame/Fallout 3}}'', ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', and ''{{VideoGame/Fallout 4}}'' use the same travel system as their {{Creator/Bethesda}} ''Elder Scrolls'' sister series, but there aren't any passenger services. That's life in the Waste for ya.

* In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'', party members told to hold position will later teleport to your controlled character's location when taken off hold (if they are far enough away). Since you can change which character you control at any time, this can make for some easier exploring and backtracking in some areas, though it is disabled in combat. Even more strangely, however, a rogue can stealth through groups of enemies and then teleport his allies to his location. All this despite being told that there is [[GameplayAndStorySegregation no such thing as teleportation in-universe]].
** In all three ''Franchise/DragonAge'' games released so far, you can travel between zones through icons on the global map, at almost any time, except during combat and story missions. ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'' also adds fast travel within zones -- between Inquisition camps, keeps, and some landmarks (usually settlements).

* ''VideoGame/EtrianOdyssey'' games offer several alternatives: the most seen of these are Ariadne Threads or Warp Wires, which will outright take you back to town from wherever you are in the labyrinth. ''Etrian Odyssey IV'' also has Silver Whistles, which instead take you to the dungeon's entrance. And ''I'' and ''The Millennium Girl'' have the Floor Jump mechanic: once you've fully mapped a floor and reached the descending staircase, you can easily teleport between every fully mapped floor's stairs.

** Spiritual sequel ''VideoGame/XenobladeChroniclesX'' ups the ante by including far, far more landmarks across the world to Fast Travel to, to the point where nearly half the hex grids on any continent's given map have warp spots in them. The game counters this by making the process of exploration both the entire point of the game and a game-long reward in itself, so that players will sometimes still want to take the long way around even though they don't have to.
** Actual sequel ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'' allows you to fast travel at almost any time, even at times when you'd expect not to be able to due to story reasons.

Compare DoorToBefore, a shortcut to a previous location, GlobalAirship, a vehicle that can get you to any part of the world map quickly, WarpWhistle, an in-game teleportation device between fixed areas, SprintShoes, an item required to make Dash Mode work and FastForwardMechanic, used to skip through InUniverseGameClock. See also RunDontWalk, a tendency in later games for characters to just run everywhere.

* Whether traveling the vast expanse of the overworld or exploring its many dungeons, backtracking is a given in ''Zelda''. Thankfully, many games in the series afford Link faster means of travel; such as on horseback, or the Goron roll or [[SprintShoes Bunny Hood]] in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask''. There are also numerous {{Warp Whistle}}s.

* ''VideoGame/DarkChronicle'' allowed transportation to key areas from the pause menu.

* Fast travel was introduced in ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'' as a response to the really open but also really empty field the first ''VideoGame/{{Assassins Creed|I}}'' took place in. The game tries to justify this as "carriage services" or "secret tunnels".

* ''VideoGame/MuramasaTheDemonBlade'' allows you to warp to shrines scattered throughout the world map upon beating the game with a character. There's also an item called the bronze mirror that is a free warp to any shrine, but can only be used once before it breaks.

* ''VideoGame/{{Myst}}'' is the TropeNamer here. If you were at the end of a linear series of rooms, certain hotspots would turn the cursor into a lightning bolt, letting you back to the beginning of the chain instantly. In the last two games, you would also be given thumbnails of [[HubLevel hub areas]] so that you could get from one part of the game world to another easily.

* Sierra's PointAndClick SCI Engine games generally had the ability to adjust the character's walk speed up to a very fast rate, including installments of ''VideoGame/KingsQuest'', ''VideoGame/SpaceQuest'', ''VideoGame/GabrielKnight'', ''VideoGame/PoliceQuest'', and ''VideoGame/QuestForGlory''.
** In at least some of the ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry'' games, double-clicking on an exit will make Larry walk at hyperspeed.
* In ''VideoGame/WrathOfTheGods'', waystations could be found throughout the countryside that would fly the main character via dragon to another location. This was a somewhat impractical method, however, as dragon flights cost money which was hard to come by in the game. There were also shortcuts through the underworld.

* ''VideoGame/CragneManor'': Reading a book you can get early in the game and solving the cipher gives you access to a command you can use to open up a fast travel system. It makes use of [[spoiler:the train stations; you have a schedule where colors correspond to different locations, and from anywhere, you can type "wait for [color] station" to instantly go there]].

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft''
** Everyone has a hearthstone used to teleport back to an inn in various quest hubs. This was extended in ''Warlords of Draenor'' to include a garrison hearthstone and then in ''Legion'' to a Dalaran hearthstone, meaning many players will have three different hearthstones to carry around.
** You can pay to fly yourself from city to city (as long as you've visited enough cities or reached a high enough level to unlock the "flight path"). This system is restricted to given set paths, unlike the flying mounts instituted later.
** The Pandaria expansion hub usually also has one-way portals to every capital, and the main capital of each faction (Stormwind/Orgrimmar) also have portals to the other capitals as well as portals to the ''Cataclysm'' expansion zones that can be unlocked fairly easily, since these were scattered all over Azeroth. Some classes also have some teleportation options of their own, most notably mages.
* In ''VideoGame/GuildWars'', you can travel, at will, instantly to any public area that your character has yet visited, making it unnecessary to trek there more than once.

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'', you can either use the Aethernet system to warp to another tuned Aethernet crystal for a fee, or use one of the Chocobo Porters to ride from the central hub to visited settlements and vice versa.

* All Infinity Engine games had the issue of characters taking ''very long'' to leisurely walk across vast locations, so ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'' added the option to make all characters run while not in combat. It was enabled by default.

* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1'' allows you to skip to certain locations, called "landmarks", that you have discovered.
** Spiritual sequel ''VideoGame/XenobladeChroniclesX'' ups the ante by including far, far more landmarks across the world to Fast Travel to, to the point where nearly half the hex grids on any continent's given map have warp spots in them. The game counters this by making the process of exploration both the entire point of the game and a game-long reward in itself, so that players will sometimes still want to take the long way around even though they don't have to.
** Actual sequel ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'' allows you to fast travel at almost any time, even at times when you'd expect not to be able to due to story reasons.

* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' has the moves Fly and Teleport, which can instantly take you to any or the last previously visited Pokémon Center respectively. ''Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire'' have upgraded Fly so you can drop off on any route as well.
* ''VideoGame/CthulhuSavesTheWorld'''s pause menu has a teleport option which lets you instantly teleport to any previously visited town at no cost (other than having to walk all the way through any dungeon you just teleported out from).
* ''VideoGame/EtrianOdyssey'' games offer several alternatives: the most seen of these are Ariadne Threads or Warp Wires, which will outright take you back to town from wherever you are in the labyrinth. ''Etrian Odyssey IV'' also has Silver Whistles, which instead take you to the dungeon's entrance. And ''I'' and ''The Millennium Girl'' have the Floor Jump mechanic: once you've fully mapped a floor and reached the descending staircase, you can easily teleport between every fully mapped floor's stairs.
* ''VideoGame/EarthBound'' has the PSI Teleport spell, used by Ness and Poo, which allows you to go back to any location in the game that you've been to previously. Ness at first only has access to the Alpha variant of the spell, which requires you to do a running start in order to teleport, but gains access to PSI Teleport Omega after completing Magicant. (Poo has access to PSI Teleport Omega when he joins the party, and is in fact ''how'' he joins the party.)

* The main ''Franchise/{{Danganronpa}}'' games let you teleport anywhere in the map, though it's disabled or restricted at some points in the plot. This is discouraged in ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair'', because taking steps allows you to increase your levels and raise a VirtualPet.

* Starting from ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'', you can have a taxi take you to whatever part of the map you want to go to either for a price (if you're using the regular, yellow taxis driving around Liberty City), or for free if you've maxed out Roman's friendship level (which includes [[Memes/GrandTheftAuto going bowling with him]]).
** ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV GTA V]]'', on the other hand, has the Taxi already added to your contacts from the start, allowing you to take a cab to wherever you'd like for a price. Unlike ''GTA IV'', however, you'll always have to pay for your fare every time (unless you're Franklin and you buy the Downtown Cab Co side business, anyway).
* In ''VideoGame/LANoire'', you can make your NPC partner drive you to the next important location; after any plot-relevant conversations have played out, you automatically arrive.
* The first two ''VideoGame/SaintsRow'' titles have this in the form of the Taxi Service. By calling the number on a taxi (like you would in RealLife, so you might want to find a Taxi first or [[GuideDangIt hit up the Saints Row Wiki for the in-game numbers]]), you can have a Taxi come pick you up and take you wherever you want in Stilwater for a reasonable price.
** The [[VideoGame/SaintsRow2022 2022 Reboot]] succeeds this with a clever implementation of the game's PhotoMode. Simply taking a picture of Santo Ileso's landmarks (which are marked for you on the map this time around) unlocks new points for you to warp to or respawn at when you die.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'' had the Pegasus Boots. With them, holding a button would cause Link to charge forward at considerable speed, pushing aside or destroying enemies and obstacles and continuing until he left the screen, hit a wall, or was damaged mid-sprint.

* The friendly areas in ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'' have points of interest accessible through the in-game menu.

* ''VideoGame/{{Xenoblade}}'' allows you to skip to certain locations, called "landmarks", that you have discovered.

* In ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' you can pay to fly yourself from city to city (as long as you've visited enough cities or reached a high enough level to unlock the "flight path"). This system is restricted to given set paths, unlike the flying mounts instituted later.

* ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'' and ''VisualNovel/SuperDanganRonpa2'' let you teleport anywhere in the map, though it's disabled or restricted at some points in the plot. This is discouraged in the sequel because taking steps allows you to increase your levels and raise a VirtualPet.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'' sacrifices rolling for an actual dash button similar to A Link to the Past's Pegasus Boots, though it's not infinite and tends to eat your stamina bar up pretty quickly, especially if you've been performing other actions that use up stamina. Another difference from the Pegasus Boots is that while dashing, you're pretty much defenseless except for how well you can manage to dodge attacks and remember to stop before the stamina bar is entirely depleted.

* ''VisualNovel/DanganRonpa'' and ''VisualNovel/SuperDanganRonpa2'' let you teleport anywhere in the map, though it's disabled or restricted at some points in the plot. This is discouraged in the sequel because taking steps allows you to increase your levels and raise a VirtualPet.

Compare DoorToBefore, a shortcut to a previous location, GlobalAirship, a vehicle that can get you to any part of the world map quickly, WarpWhistle, an in-game teleportation device between fixed areas, and SprintShoes, an item required to make Dash Mode work. See also RunDontWalk, a tendency in later games for characters to just run everywhere.

* ''VideoGame/CthulhuSavesTheWorld'''s pause menu has a teleport option which lets you instantly teleport to any previously visited town at no cost (other than having to walk all the way through that dungeon you just teleported out from).

* ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' has railroads, teleporting Ender Pearls, and Nether Portals. It's worth noting however that the Railroads have to be set-up manually, Ender Pearls need to be thrown and have a habit of teleporting you far above your intended destination causing fall damage, and Nether Portals mean you have to navigate through the Nether, a hell-like dimension. This can be utilised by setting two Portals in the real world first, and then trekking through the Nether, which is often more dangerous than just trekking through the regular world.

* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls''
** The series in general has had fast travel since ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsArena Arena]]''. ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIDaggerfall Daggerfall]]'' allows you to fast travel to any location right away, but ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'' require you to visit a location before you can fast travel there. (''Skyrim'' does have carriages that will, for a price, take you from any major city to any other major city to make it easier.)
** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]'' is an exception, as it lacks fast travel. It does have it in the form of Silt Striders (giant native insects which have been lobotomized and are "driven" by manipulating exposed muscle tendons. Passengers ride in the beast's hollowed-out shell), boats along the coasts, and by the Mages Guild "Guild Guide" service (instant teleportation between Mages Guild halls). Additionally, the spells "Divine Intervention" and "Almsivi Intervention" will teleport you to the nearest Imperial shrine and Tribunal temple, respectively. The Mark and Recall spells are similar, allowing you to set a "Mark" and then "Recall" to that spot. Useful for traveling long distances when no fast travel is available, getting out of a sticky situation in a hurry, or for transporting more loot than you could carry on foot.
* ''{{VideoGame/Fallout 3}}'', ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', and ''{{VideoGame/Fallout 4}}'' use the same travel system as their {{Creator/Bethesda}} ''Elder Scrolls'' sister series, but there aren't any passenger services. But that's life in the Waste for ya.

* ''MuramasaTheDemonBlade'' allows you to warp to shrines scattered throughout the world map upon beating the game with a character. There's also an item called the bronze mirror that is a free warp to any shrine, but can only be used once before it breaks.

* ''VideoGame/Persona4'' lets you skip to nearby areas by pressing the square button, expanding a feature originally created for ''VideoGame/Persona3Portable''.

* ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'' lets you skip to nearby areas by pressing the square button.
** This feature was used in [[{{Persona 3}} Persona 3 Portable]] when the original version was remade for the PSP.

* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind'' has large insects and boats you could pay to ride to set locations. ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'' took this further with a fast travel system that allowed you to travel to any major city from the start, then other locations as they were discovered, though a proportionate amount of in-game time still passed. ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'' uses Oblivion's fast travel to locations you've visited, and like Morrowind you can pay a fare to take carriages to set destinations.
** Before those three games, ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIDaggerfall'' had a fast travel system similar to Oblivion, but didn't require you to have visited any locations before going there. Likely because the map is the size of a country.
** ''{{VideoGame/Fallout 3}}'' and ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' used the same travel system, but your character didn't start with any knowledge of locations, and there weren't any passenger services. But that's life in the Waste for ya.

* ''VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward'' allows you to jump between diverging points of the story. This was a response to ''VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors'' where you had to tediously play the game multiple times trying to unlock the true ending. Most importantly, this mechanic [[spoiler:also serves as a plot device.]]

** The current expansion hub usually also has one-way portals to every capital, and the main capital of each faction (Stormwind/Ogrimmar) also have portals to the other capitals as well as portals to the ''Cataclysm'' expansion zones that can be unlocked fairly easily, since these were scattered all over Azeroth. Some classes also have some teleportation options of their own, most notably mages.